Form completion by potential clients

[Dexie]

Bearing in mind that some people don't like forms - When clients are looking at one of your forms, how do you 'encourage' them to complete the form?

Then, assuming that they are completing the form, how do you help to ensure that they do complete the form correctly? For example, if they click send without completing their name, do you find it works better, for them to still be on the same page, but it then has the red asterisk beside the question they didn't complete, with a little message saying that they need to complete it.

Also, do you find it works better to show them a confirmation page of what they completed on the form page, before they click send?

Any specific or general tips on this would be really appreciated.

Dexie.

[collymellon]

Just do the easiest for the user - alert missed fields with the red astrix on the same page, and when they click submit take them to a quick confirmation page indicating you will respond within so many hours.

Just my thoughts :)

[Dexie]

Those thoughts are very much appreciated ;-)

So, ditch the bit where they can see on the confirmation page, the contents of the form that they completed? Just in case they completed, for example, the telephone number incorrectly? I say this, because some people just put in any old number, just so that the enquiry can be sent, but with their proper email address.

Grateful for any tips.

Dexie.

[kaled]

Don't ask for for information than you actually need. Long forms are sure to annoy people more than short ones. And when you validate a form, if there are errors, don't just highlight the first error field, focus/scroll the field into view as well.

Also, make sure fields are wide enough and text-areas large enough. Unnecessary scrolling annoys me greatly.

Kaled.

[Dexie]

Many thanks for the input Kaled.

There's only 5 questions on the form, so that shouldn't be a prob.

Can you expand a little on this: "don't just highlight the first error field, focus/scroll the field into view as well." Do you mean show all fields, including the parts correctly completed as well?

Any help appreciated.

Dexie.

[kaled]

Whether you show just the error fields is a judgement call. It also depends on technology. If you are using javascript to validate the form, you would normally show all fields but if you are validating the form server-side then you might show just the error fields.

In some cases, server-side validation is necessary, e.g. to check for existing user-names, but in most other cases, javascript validation is preferable since it is quicker. However, you need to allow for the possibility that javascript is disabled. You also need to check that your code works on at least the three major browsers (IE, FF and Opera).

Kaled.

[Dexie]

Many thanks Kaled, much appreciated.

Back to the drawing board!